Several months ago, we went to use our PNC check card and it was declined. So we call the 1-800 number but it's after 10 pm so no one is there to help us. We wait until the next day and call as soon as their call center opens. We are told they have no clue as to why are cards are DEACTIVATED. There is money in the account, they haven't been reported lost or stolen, and the account is still open.

Their advice is to go into a branch because apparently, the branch put the hold on the card. But it was Sunday, so no branch was open. After speaking with multiple people who tell me there is nothing they can do, we finally get someone who re-activates our card over the phone. No reason can be given for why they were deactivated in the first place. No one wants to take responsibility for it.

Tonight, the same thing. My husband just finished 7 days straight of work. Tomorrow, he starts 13 solid days of work. This was our only time to get out and have some couple time. Hire babysitter, hop in car, go get gas... card deactivated. Once again, it is after "business hours" and no one is available to help us until tomorrow. We are beyond furious and will be closing our account ASAP. While they have our home phone, cell phones, and email addresses, we were not notified of the deactivation. The first time it happened, we never even got a snail mail letter of explanation.

UPDATE: Called this morning at 7:20am and was told by automated system that it would be a 4-5 minute wait. At about the 4 minute mark, I hear a click and a message saying to leave a voicemail. I hang up and call back and got someone right away. She told me that she couldn't do anything since that department didn't open until 8am and that I should call back. I did. I spent 5 minutes explaining the situation, 35 minutes on hold, 2 minutes talking again to the rep and then another 10 minutes on hold.

She told me her supervisor couldn't reactivate the cards via the phone. I replied that wasn't true because that's what they did last time. She agreed that some supervisors "don't do that" but she had multiple supervisors in several states that she could try. I got the cards activated again.

When I asked why they were deactivated, she told me that it could be a merchant reported fraudulent charges, but when she checked, she said no. Then she told me it was because we were overdrawn, which we were the prior week but it was covered with a direct deposit 2 days prior. I asked her what triggered a deactivation versus just declining the card and she said it was the amount of days overdrawn. I asked her to quantify that and she checks the account again and says, "Oh, that's not it". Then she tells me that overdrawing 10 times in a 30 day period would deactivate the card. I told her there was NO WAY we overdrew our account 10 times.

This was a one time emergency that we had to deliberately overdraw the account and I was aware of it and covered it. So, then the reasoning was the amount we overdrew the account. Then she says, "Oh, that doesn't look like it was it either. Well, they are activated now". Gee, thanks. I understand declining the card but deactivating it? Even though the account was brought in good standing 2 days prior, we still had no access to our money. As for notifying us, we were told they "try to make an effort to contact the customer". We have no messages or missed calls.

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Phony Pending Withdrawals

By Max - 08/01/2013

Rating: 1/51

CLEVELAND, OHIO -- On a Monday evening I tried to make a purchase for $114 but only had $90.60 in my checking account. My bank card was declined. When I went home and checked my balance it showed a pending withdrawal for $90.60 even though the transaction was not completed and I left the store without any merchandise. I immediately called the store and was told it would probably come off the next day.

On Tuesday the pending withdrawal was still there and I called the store and they told me it was the bank's responsibility. I called the bank and the man laughed and said it was the stores fault "they're holding up your money". I called the store corporate office and they also told me it was the bank keeping the pending status on the money. On Wednesday it was still pending and I called the bank and the store corp. office and again each blamed the other adamantly.

On Thursday I called the bank and explained how each was blaming the other and was told "well its both. The store could take the $90.60 from your account and you could pay the rest in cash". I told him "are you kidding? It's over! It was Monday. I'm not still in the store. The transaction was never completed. I have no merchandise.

There isn't even a transaction number because there was no transaction". Then I asked if I had access to use this money while the pending status was in place and while he hesitated I said this is a yes or no question. He said no. I asked if I would have been charged a non sufficient fund charge if I had tried to use the card and he said "well yes, you don't have overdraft protection".

I stated "so PNC can keep this pending status on my money and then not allow me to use it and charge me NSF fees when you know that this transaction is dead"? The PNC representative stated "do you want me to take the pending status off today?" I asked if he can take it off today, could it have been taken off on Tuesday and again he hesitated until I demanded a yes or no answer.

He stated yes it could have been if I had spoken to someone in his department. I stated that this was the same number I had been calling and he told me he was in a special department with authority to take the pending status off and that my call rolled over to his department because the regular department that doesn't have his authority must be really busy. He then said he would take it off and that it would be off on Friday! This is ridiculous. Can this possibly be legal? It's certainly not ethical.

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Virtual Wallet a Virtual Disaster

By trmn8r - 04/30/2013

Rating: 2/51

I have been a PNC customer for about 3 years. I sought them out because my regional bank ticked me off a bit. As first, I was very happy with PNC. First, they gave me a great (teaser) rate on opening an account. Next, there are actually 3 linked accounts, the interest bearing one and two others, that you can move money between. Overdrafts cause money to automatically be transferred from the growth account to the checking, with no fee whatsoever. Sounds great, and it has been at times, but that is when the system works. The price for all this functionality is it is strictly online - no paper statements.

The online portal is the problem. PNC uses a behemoth program called "Virtual Wallet" to allow users to schedule payments, and blah blah blah. All kinds of fancy screens and calendars. Fail - all I want is to see my transactions like in a checking account statement.

To the problem - on a good day it takes VW forever to load. On a bad day, which is yesterday and today, it doesn't load at all. The screen that says it is loading freezes. I called customer service yesterday and today, and they acted as a "go between" to the technical support that knows what they are doing and me. Both yesterday and today I was told "a problem ticket has been opened and someone will call you back." Today I was told it may take 3 days, and after that they would "have it fixed". The customer service representative admitted that the tech support guy told her the problem is "on our end".

That's it PNC. All I wanted was to see my transactions. No fancy graphics. I'm and my money are gone, alone with that teaser rate that you reduced to 0.01% several months ago. It's too bad - I really liked your setup. But I have to be able to negotiate my accounts without delay or a mental fitness exercise. I've seen other complaints and defended you, but that was yesterday.

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Closed acct after overdrawn once, money was returned to them the next day!

By DerekDudage - 05/20/2011

PERRYOPOLIS, PENNSYLVANIA -- I have been with PNC Bank for two years now. Over a year ago I had overdrawn my account mistakenly by less than $5. I bought a movie and thought that I had the whole amount in the bank, but mistakenly did not. At this time I didn't use my check card often so I didn't check the balance often. Almost 2 weeks later I got a letter in the mail stating that I was over $100 in debt due to overdraft fees, yes, overdraft fees! So, I went to the bank immediately and deposited my whole paycheck of $180, thinking that it would cover it.

The next day, I checked my balance. It turns out that since I had received the letter so late, I had accumulated even MORE in overdraft fee's and I still owed them over 100 MORE dollars! In short, I paid them over $200 for them giving me 3 dollars that I didn't have. So I paid that. Everything was finally in the norm until about 4 months later when I had an emergency and had to overdraw my account. I got that taken care of and everything was okay. Until about 3 weeks ago when I had to take 100 dollars out of my account that I didn't have.

I went into the bank the NEXT DAY and gave the teller everything that I owed, plus more! I made sure with her that everything would be okay and my account wouldn't be closed or anything. She assured me that everything would be fine. About 2 weeks after the incident, I received a letter in the mail from PNC Bank stating that they were closing BOTH of my accounts. Not just the one that I overdrew, but both of them! The letters also stated that I would receive a check in the mail for the balance of every account closed.

Over a week later I finally received the checks in the mail... PNC will stick you any way they can. They will not notify you of anything (and if they do it's way after the fact!), they will show no remorse. It's disgusting how the American People, the people who make this country, have hardly any power over their money or their government as a whole!

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Modification Or Fraud

By WKS - 06/22/2010

PNC Mortgage is not trying to modify mortgages, they simply put you through their applications process and then lose or can't find the information. They repeatedly request duplicate information and claim to not have it.
When in fact most of my information was faxed as requested with confirmations.

I would think a investigation into their modification record would reveal many homeowners in my position who like me have given up after repeatedly filling requested papers and then being told that my papers were not received in a timely fashion. When in fact I responded in most cases immediately by fax and backed it up with a mailed copy.

This organization bought my mortgage from National and my past relationship with my primary mortgage company does exist anymore. PNC mortgage has confused and complicated policies designed to do just what happened to me - cause mortgage holders to get frustrated and give up on trying to navigate their playground.

If only our taxes could have been used to play with them maybe modifying mortgages to families would not be a game in which they deliberately do this. I hope by posting this other consumers will be careful before starting a relationship with this organization.

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PNC Bank Sucks

By Kish - 03/29/2010

PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA -- I was a National City customer and the bank was sold to PNC Bank. I received much literature and information assuring me everything would be the same as National City just a different bank. I thought initial this is cool its part of a bigger bank and maybe I could get some cool services because of that fact. The horror begins...

Incident Number 1 started when my online banking that was supposed to be a smooth transition and all my bills were supposed to be paid as usual... NOT. Well in fact my very large rent check for my business never got sent. So I get a call from my landlord to tell me it was never received. Well I've had it automatically sent for the past 2 years. I called PNC and guess what they have no record of it being an automatic payment although they said it appeared as though it was paid same time every month. So I called National City who informed me they had no access to the account anymore so there is basically no record of anything.

I own 2 business so rent check number 2 shows up late... I file a complaint because National City had a guarantee but guess what I got no response... it went through some automated system and basically got told it was my fault. I had another bill supposed to be sent every month, again like above no record, never sent.

I had my insurance bill sent, but they used old account numbers... It had up till the transfer been paid on time and from National City. It got sent back to me because the account numbers were no longer active. Login ID listed my name and home address and phone on bill payer checks rather than my business. They explained that is the way it was at National City but it wasn't that way at all. Other bills that are sent every month same address both came back undeliverable. I looked at the addresses and they aren't even close to the address of where the bill was supposed to go.

Called into PNC to ask where to find something online but I didn't have my account number. I could tell them everything else including tax id. They said they needed my account number no exceptions. So instead of helping me I was again left flapping in the breeze.

Need account statements from last year which was available from National City but I guess isn't available anymore because PNC seemed to have lost everything from National City and I can no longer get any information or statements. So I decided to switch banks... end of story I guess.

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Unfair overdraft fees!

By gigi813 - 08/29/2009

PHILADELPHIA, PA, PENNSYLVANIA -- I have also had a problem with PNC Bank and will soon be moving to another bank. Beware of online bill pay. I pay my bills every month with unline bill pay and always put in the amount and date two weeks before bills are due to be paid. This time I made a terrible error by inserting the wrong date and my bills were paid a week before I was actually paid overdrawing my account by hundreds of dollars. I live paycheck to paycheck and at this time have no money in my savings account to cover these bills. Of course all of my checks were returned and I was charged 9 overdraft fees ranging from $34 to $36. I was horrified and called the bank to explain. I was told that since my account was in good standing and I have never bounced a check, I would be reimbursed all but $100. I felt that as long as I was getting something back, I better take what I could and strick that as a lesson learned. The woman I spoke to also told me that the checks would be presented again in 3 business days at which time I would have the money in my account. The checks were presented again the VERY NEXT day!!! Of course again I didn't have the money in my account! Now I am being told that I will have to wait for all of the overdraft charges to appear on my account before anything could be done but that I should be aware that most likely nothing will be done since I was already giving one courtesy refund. I explained that the woman I spoke with me assured me I had three days and was told that they will investigate. Of course we all know this woman will deny this and now I will be charged tons of late fees. Not to mention my credit card companies charging me return check fees. Is this fair?? Does anyone know of anything I could do about this? If so, I'd love to hear from you.

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Unbelievable!

By foxychick - 03/14/2008

I am FED UP with PNC Bank.

I had an account with PNC in 2006. I made an error and overdrew my account. Because it was overdrawn for too long, they closed my account and sent my closed (overdrawn) account to a 'recovery specialist' who works directly for PNC Bank in Pittsburgh.

In late 11/06 I received a letter from PNC Bank stating the amount of money that I was overdrawn that I needed to repay. Early 12/06 I called my 'recovery specialist' and made and agreement with her to pay a certain amount of money to PNC Bank via cashiers check... and I had a specific mail stop (internal mailing between PNC Banks) to send my payment when I got the cashiers check at the local PNC Branch.

I received a letter about a month or so later (01/07 or 02/07) stating that I had paid the balance as agreed and Chexsystems would be notified. Chexsystems is a reporting agency for financial institutions (similar to a credit report from Experian).

I believed their silly little letter and thought that the issue would be resolved as agreed since I fulfilled my financial obligation and paid them back as agreed.

A few months later I attempted to open a new checking account with a different bank. I was declined! The reason... because I still owed money to PNC Bank (THE MONEY I ALREADY PAID)! Well I called and my 'recovery specialist' guaranteed me over the phone that I had paid it off and that everything would be reported back to Chexsystems.

A few months later, which would now bring me to 10/07, I tried to change my savings account with a different bank, into a checking account. Once again, I was declined because of Chexsystems stated that I still owed money from 11/06 to PNC Bank.

By this point I was aggravated to say the least, but still remained patient, more patient then I now realize I should have been. I was giving them the benefit of the doubt thinking that sometimes things happen and confident that they would resolve this overlooked error. I requested them to mail me another letter stating that I paid the balance as agreed and that I did not owe any more money... and once again that Chexsystems would be notified.

I waited 2 weeks for the letter to come to my home and didn't receive a letter. I called again and spoke to someone else who said that my letter was mailed on 10/27/07. I waited a little while more until 11/17/07 and called back and advised that I needed them to send me another letter because I never received the letter which was supposedly mailed on 10/27/07.

The letter was the same as the first, it said that everything was paid off as agreed and Chexsystems would be notified.

January 28, 2008 I wanted to open another checking and savings account with a local credit union (now I have 2 checking accounts and 2 savings accounts with 2 separate financial institutions)... I bet you all know what I am going to say.... I WAS DECLINED AGAIN BECAUSE CHEXSYSTEMS SAID THAT I STILL OWED PNC BANK MONEY!!!! I was able to present a letter stating that I paid them in 12/06 and the woman opening my account said that it only takes 30 days for Chexsystems to be updated when the bank informs them of a change. WELL I called the 'recovery specialist' on 01/28/08 and advised that everything was still showing as NOT BEING RESOLVED ON CHEXSYSTEMS!!! Her response "Oh I see the problem, the drop down box is still showing open. I will correct the problem and notify Chexsystems. It will show up in 30 days that your account is clear with PNC Bank."

My patience was GONE by this point in time. LONG GONE! It took me 5 phone calls just between 10/07 and 01/08 to TRY TO GET IT RESOLVED.
I finally went to the local credit union and asked them my rights to order a Chexsystems report. The wonderful account rep at the branch gave me a piece of paper with Chexsystems information. In the beginning of March I ordered my own report. NEEDLESS TO SAY PNC BANK WAS STILL SHOWING UP WITH ME OWING THEM MONEY!!!! I called my local credit union and asked her if she could run the report YESTERDAY and she ran the report... it is still there surprise surprise!
Now if you count the days between 01/28/08 and 03/12/08 it is over 30 days.

I filed a dispute with Chexsystems; however, I don't feel that the dispute alone was enough. I made sure to contact the 'recovery specialist' supervisor yesterday and let her know of the situation. I said to her "please tell me WHY it has taken OVER 6 phone calls including TODAY just since OCTOBER 2007 to get this issue resolved. This has been ongoing since 12/06 what is the explanation that you can offer to me as to WHY it has taken so long?" Her response to me "Maybe you were talking to the wrong person". I said " I was speaking to my recovery specialist that was assigned to my case.... WAS THAT THE WRONG PERSON?" She insulted my intelligence and I feel that this a MAJOR case of a misrepresentation!!! They represented to me that Chexsystems would be notified... and they never were.

For all the time and effort I put into trying to get something resolved which was taken care of in 12/06... THEY SHOULD BE PAYING ME!

I HATE PNC BANK.... HATE HATE HATE THEM!!!!!!

Anyone know who I can go to to file a formal complaint for all the stress, aggravation, time, and most of all embarrassment PNC BANK has unjustly caused????

There is no LOGICAL reason why this issue shouldn't have been resolved in 12/06 when they received their money.

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Business Service

By Bruce - 10/04/2013

Rating: 1/51

SANFORD, FLORIDA -- I brought a homeless day worker to PNC to cash a check drawn on my business account. The Sanford Florida branch manager had the personal discretion to waive the $10 fee and help the guy out, but wanted to be a selfish petty prick and refused. I complained that all their smiley talk about customer service is hypocritical phony lip service. SO guess what? For daring to complain about a policy you might disagree with - they canceled our accounts! Two business checking accounts and a Merchant Service account. How? In the typical way you would expect a machine-like uncaring big bank to act: a form letter in the mail, unsigned because no one had the courage to call or face us. No dispute. No conversation. No redress. Just rude, disrespectful, arrogant and typical of Big Bank.

This is the same type of smiley customer service attitude PNC uses when they foreclose and drag grandma out of her house and throw her onto the curb. AVOID PNC and move your money to a local, truly caring credit union. When more of us, the People, do this then the heartless, backstabbing bully big banks will change.

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Predatory Lending Practices

By James - 07/17/2013

Rating: 1/51

GULF SHORES -- PNC Bank of Gulf Shores seems to be dealing in predatory lending practices. I recently contacted my local branch of PNC and verbally requested an auto loan. I declined the approved loan. When PNC headquarters sent documentation regarding the loan [as mandated by the FDIC] they had run two loan applications, one for an auto loan and one for a secured loan. PNC also ran two separate credit reports through Experian [this lowered my credit score 20 points].When I contacted the loan officer she said the two loan applications were only internal and two credit reports were not run. The officer had personally checked my credit report again and said Experian did not show two reports requested from PNC. I ran my credit report to find two credit reports had been run by PNC the day of the credit applications. One for auto and one secured loan.The officer suggested I write a letter of dispute to the credit agency protesting the "mistake". When asked why I should protest a hit on my credit by PNC that did not exist [as PNC claims] she had no answer. Corporate was contacted that came to the same conclusion.

Why should a client of PNC have to contest a "mistake" on their report when it was not a mistake-PNC ran my credit twice without approval/ knowledge-providing documentation to Experian would only constitute fraud on my part. Bankers please stop this unethical behavior of lying and deception. I would like to personally thank PNC for lowering my credit score-wonder if my PNC credit card rate will increase due to lower credit score?